The Speaking Squid

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Saturday, September 20, 2025

Swordtember: Uruk-hai Scimitar

Uruk-hai Scimitar

Uruk-hai Scimitar: These mass-produced tools of killing are the antithesis of the meticulously crafted elven blades they were made to fight.

Swordtember is a month-long sword-themed art challenge created by Faith Schaffer.

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Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Monday, September 15, 2025

Swordtember: Flameberge

Flameberge

Flameberge: This wavy blade is a colored version of an item card from the Oracle of Seasons set.

Swordtember is a month-long sword-themed art challenge created by Faith Schaffer.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Friday, September 12, 2025

Kubikiribōchō: Literally translated, the decapitating carving knife, this is one of the seven legendary swords belonging to the village hidden in the mists. This is also the second most reasonable sword of the bunch, even though it looks like an electric windmill blade instead of a sword used by people.

Swordtember is a month-long sword-themed art challenge created by Faith Schaffer.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Thursday, September 11, 2025

Swordtember: The Soul Edge

Soul Edge: A lifetime of violence and death birthed this cursed blade and imbued it with a malevolent will that seeks only greater destruction and suffering. If you have the opportunity to take the soul edge because you just beat its owner, don’t, it’s obviously evil and will probably ruin your life and most of the lives around you.

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Being an edgy alt kid from the late 90s, early 00s, Nightmare was, of course, my main fighter from the Soulcalibur games.

Swordtember is a month-long sword-themed art challenge created by Faith Schaffer.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Monday, September 8, 2025

Swordtember: Orc Raider siege falchion

Orc Raider siege falchion

Siege Falchion: These massive, thick-bladed swords are an ungainly combination of a lance, an axe, and a falchion. Orc worg riders can skewer slow foes with the point of the blade in a charge, or they can use the edge-shaped blade to make short work of wooden structures favored by the exploratory armies invading the Orc steppe.

Finding out Orc raiders did siege damage in Warcraft 3 was fairly disappointing. You’d think a blade longer than a human would make quick work of a footman, but the blade moves too slowly, apparently. Those raiders were great for just wrecking an enemy's expansion base.

Swordtember is a month-long sword-themed art challenge created by Faith Schaffer.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Thursday, September 4, 2025

Swordtember: The Sword of Truth and Justice

The Sword of Truth and Justice: When the blue-white Mirran sword strikes, it sends a pulse of power to an ally and then amplifies all the magical boons and banes impacting everyone nearby.

Swordtember is a month-long sword-themed art challenge created by Faith Schaffer.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Swordtember: The Sword of War and Peace

The Sword of War and Peace

The Sword of War and Peace: When the red-white Mirran sword strikes, it burns its victims and heals its wielder.

Swordtember is a month-long sword-themed art challenge created by Faith Schaffer.

I don’t think I’m going to draw anything new for Swordtember, but I have some unposted swords to share with the world.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Sunday, August 31, 2025

The Minish Cap: A small needle with a big story.

A small needle with a big story.

Picori Blade: The blade that seals the bound chest was given to a legendary hero of men by the Picori in ages past. It was used to banish a great evil and seal its monsters and demons into the bound chest, ushering in an age of peace. The blade remained in the bound chest until Vaati destroyed it to open the bound chest in his search for ultimate power. Link only ever sees the intact Picori blade during his adventures in the Minish Cap.

Paw Thorn is the name given to this needle, famously wielded by the equally brave and foolish Marai Spicerack. The Spicerack family had always been menaced by Buterscotch, the mouser and resident cat of the house. Instead of stealth and subtlety, as is the way of the Borrower, Marai chose speed and pain, undertaking a campaign of terror that eventually saw Butterscotch bring dead mice to the spicerack as an offering of surrender.

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The Picori are a great reminder that your fantasy world can have a nearly invisible race of Borrower-inspired little folk that can be dropped in whenever you need them to be.

Need some seeds stolen out of a pouch? The little folk.

Need an object to have moved since you put it down? The little folk.

Need an entire temple complex to be hidden neatly within a local fountain? The little folk.

Take this as your sign to add Borrowers or Picori or Little Folk or whatever to your world today.

How to support me:

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Sunday, August 24, 2025

The Minish Cap: The blade that was shattered is forged anew.

The blade that was broken is forged anew.

Broken Picori Blade: The Picori Blade sealed Vaati within the bound chest, but it was broken when Vaati escaped his imprisonment. Link is given the broken blade and the task of restoring its former power by King Daltus. Link my gather the elemental essences to first reforge the broken blade into the White Sword and eventually the Four Sword.

“All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.”

-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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It's not the best Narsil and Andúril fan art, but it is mine.

It is impossible to state how much of an impact The Lord of the Rings films had on my life. I was 10, I liked all sorts of kid stuff, and then this serious fantasy epic appeared on the big screen, and something clicked. After that, I was hooked on fantasy. I was a reluctant reader, but I’d read fantasy. I played with fantasy toys. I went searching for fantasy video games, and I found Morrowind and WarCraft 3, and the rest is history.

How to support me:

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Sunday, August 17, 2025

The Minish Cap: The sword of a warlord

The sword of a warlord

Smith’s Sword: This sword was forged to be the prize of the sword-fighting competition held during the Picori festival, which was ultimately interrupted by Vaati’s evil schemes. Link is given the sword by his grandfather, the greatest Hylian smith, and tasked to take it to the King. We covered the Smith’s sword as a functional item at the start of this set. This represents the smith’s sword as a quest item.

After the empire abandoned the Isles, warlords began to carve the land into small feuding fiefdoms. A particularly well-provisioned warlord, known for carrying the sword of an imperial governor, established a small but bountiful fief during the chaotic post-imperial years. It was from that strong core that the young warlord would steadily expand their sphere of influence until they controlled enough of the Isles to be considered its first true king.

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King Arthur was almost assuredly not a real person in the way we think of him. While the Arthur we all imagine is probably a myth, there may have been a charismatic and influential leader in Britain in the post-Roman period who was known for his amazing sword and the forging of a fledgling British kingdom.

Maybe that leader used an awe-inspiring Roman Spatha that was cast using a stone mold and polished to a mirror sheen. It might take the magic out of the story a little bit, but I personally love seeing the mundane, plausible side of mythic tales. It makes the mythic tales all that much more grand.

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